Nothing can deliver a bigger financial blow to your client than doing business with a risky or problematic party. While every new business relationship is a potential long-range opportunity, it’s also a potential risk. One of your greatest responsibilities as a lawyer is to mitigate your clients’ exposure to those risks and do what you can to limit any possible negative outcomes.
Careful and complete due diligence is the only line of defense against potentially disastrous business relationships. While any worthwhile attorney already knows that, many lawyers don’t realize they’re falling short when it comes to conducting proper due diligence. With Westlaw Court Express by Thomson Reuters, you’ll never have to worry that you’re not covering all your bases.
Thanks to PACER, federal court documents are now available online. Companies like Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg have gone a step further, making these records searchable and relatively easy to find. When it comes to searching state court records, however, things are more like the Wild West. Whether state court documents are available online — and how they’re catalogued if they are — is a guessing game. In many cases, there’s simply no substitute for sending a runner to the courthouse to track down what you need.
The same is true for background searches and other forms of due diligence. Even when information is available online, every system captures and stores that information in a different way, so standard searches will only begin to scratch the surface. But with clients pushing back on astronomical legal bills and refusing to pay for junior associate hours, finding the most expedient and cost-effective way to do things is critical.
In the case of conducting thorough due diligence, that means enlisting the help of someone who knows not only where to search, but how to search. That someone would ideally be well-versed in both factual due diligence and court record retrieval, with experience in any jurisdiction where your needs may arise.
Enter Court Express. With extensive experience in all aspects of court records searching, factual research and background checks, Court Express is your one-stop shop for all your document retrieval and due diligence needs. With a single request, you can have the same service running your comprehensive background checks and promptly retrieving documents that aren’t available online, saving you time and money.
Document Retrieval
Clients want answers now, and they won’t be satisfied with excuses about things not being available online. When it comes to document retrieval, time is of the essence, and Court Express delivers.
Within four hours of your request, the retrievers at Court Express can be at most U.S. courts, agencies or other public institutions, tracking down the documents you need. Their runners will manually locate your documents and deliver them to you according to your specifications, either electronically or in hard copy. In the meantime, you can focus on meeting the rest of your client needs.
Court Express’s geographical coverage area is vast. While many court retrievers specialize in only specific states or very narrow geographical regions, Court Express has been to every county in the country. Their typical four-hour retrieval window applies to most courts in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories.
In an age where everything is impersonal and done online, it’s easy to forget how far personal interaction can get you. The retrievers at Court Express know their way around a records room. Because you’re relying on people who routinely visit the same offices and interact with the same records staff, you can rest assured that you’re getting everything you need in the most expedient way possible.
Due Diligence
Court record retrieval is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to thorough due diligence. To truly protect your client’s interests, you need to know as much as possible about their adversaries and potential business partners. Failing to expand your research beyond Google and other online databases could result in missing some dangerous red flags.
The due diligence reports produced by Court Express provide in-depth background information on individuals and public entities, according to your specifications. You can tailor requests to obtain exactly the information you need to represent your clients and conduct your cases.
Researchers will physically retrieve hard copies of any public records needed to complete the picture and, as with court record retrieval, Court Express offers an impressive turn-around time on due diligence searches. In most instances, comprehensive background reports are delivered in just a few days. Best of all, the searching is done in Court Express’s name, so you won’t run the risk of your opponents finding out that your client is trying to dig up dirt on them.
The importance of proper due diligence cannot be understated. A one-stop service that can deftly handle both document retrieval and due diligence is crucial to obtaining a complete and accurate picture of what your client might be walking into.
When you want due diligence done right, call Court Express. With something as critical as your client’s financial well-being on the line, you need to know you can trust your retrievers and researches to leave no stone unturned.